The course approval number for this course will be available upon request

Clear, mutually acceptable agreements are an essential component of the legal transference of ownership. In the practice of real estate, contracts are the instruments used to describe and record the agreements surrounding the conveyance of property. Some type of contract is nearly always involved, whether a salesperson is promising to sell a property within a specified period of time, a prospective buyer is placing an offer on a house, or a seller is considering an offer on property.

Before entering into a legally binding agreement, real estate professionals must fully understand the contracts that govern their industry. Failure to understand contracts opens a licensee to various kinds of liability and can seriously damage one's professional reputation. Therefore, it is vital that real estate professionals learn this material so they can protect themselves against errors, oversights, and misunderstandings.

In this course, the student will learn about the types of general contracts as well as the different kinds of real estate contracts. The course begins by providing the student with an overview of the various types of contracts: bilateral, unilateral, implied, express, executed, executory, valid, void, voidable, and unenforceable. Once the student is introduced to the different types of contracts, he or she learns what makes a contract legally enforceable, this being the five components that make a contract valid: mutual assent, legally competent parties, consideration, lawful objective, and adherence to a statute of frauds.

This course includes the following lessons:

• Types of Contracts
  
  
• Features of a Legally Valid Contract
  
  
• Contract Fulfillment
  
  
• Real Estate Contracts
  

The fifth lesson in this course presents real-world dilemmas and concrete applications of the information presented in the rest of the course. As the student completes this course, he or she should try to develop a broad picture of contractual issues and how they fit into the larger practice of real estate; the last lesson will help with this project by presenting comprehensive content questions, practice problems, and case studies.